Elon Musk’s rocket managed to overcome almost all the set challenges, although it was lost in the final minutes during the reentry of the spacecraft into the atmosphere. 

At 14.25 Spanish peninsular time, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched its third and most successful Starship mission from Boca Chica beach in South Texas, more than an hour and a half behind schedule. Even if the rocket didn’t launch, SpaceX stated they were learning a lot and the information gathered would be invaluable for the rapid development of Starship. This rocket is crucial in the current race to return humans to the moon. Although more tests are needed to ensure the spacecraft’s flawless operation, this was a significant step forward after two failed attempts. In this third attempt, both the booster and the spacecraft were tested, which created uncertainty about the mission’s outcome. However, both stages successfully ascended, the payload door operated correctly, and the spacecraft returned to Earth in a controlled manner after an hour of flight, testing the heat shield tiles. Although the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere in a spectacular fireball, the signal was lost at an altitude of 65 kilometers, suggesting it was lost. The mission was planned to splash down in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar. This destination, unlike the Pacific where the previous two attempts were targeted, required testing if it was possible to shut down and restart one of its Raptor engines mid-flight to redirect the spacecraft on this new route. The shutdown was performed, but the restart was not attempted. At its peak, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 234 kilometers. They also successfully tested mid-flight fuel transfer, which is important for plans to take humans to the moon. In the first attempt, on April 20, 2023, the spacecraft was deliberately destroyed when there was a failure in the separation of its two stages, the booster (Super Heavy) and the spacecraft itself. In the second attempt, on November 18 of the same year, it reached space but did not hit the programmed altitude, although the two parts of the rocket separated correctly. In this third attempt, Super Heavy and Starship separated without problems, but the booster was lost on the way back, when it was supposed to land back. SpaceX has already sold two space tourism trips in the moon’s orbit and was chosen by NASA to return astronauts to the moon in the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for 2026. To achieve this, it was still necessary to demonstrate that the Starship spacecraft is capable of reaching Earth’s orbit, which it has now done, something it failed to do in its first two launches. The rush to meet the deadline is reflected in the compressed test dates. The five months separating this attempt from the previous one is the shortest interval between a second and third launch of a commercial rocket of this type. More than a year passed between the second and third test launches of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 and Falcon 9. Over the next two years, at least ten more tests and an unmanned moon landing are planned for 2026. The Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster together form the world’s tallest rocket, standing at 122 meters. It’s also the most powerful. To escape Earth’s gravity, the first stage has 33 Raptor engines, and when the Starship detaches, it has six more engines. Today, from Boca Chica, they roared to continue advancing in a journey that should end with the first human trip to an extraterrestrial world since 1972.